


Rachel is Here

by priestessamy



Series: Rachel is Here [5]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Everything is Fine AU, F/F, Fluff, Fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-23 14:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4880950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/priestessamy/pseuds/priestessamy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little something I wrote a while back, on request from a friend. General sort of Amberprice, with maybe a hint of implied Amberpricefield. One of those AUs where everything is totally fine and nothing hurts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was... impressive really. Max, presumably, had the only key to her new dorm room. And yet, when she opened the door, a blue lightning bolt struck her and she found herself being hugged fervently by her long lost best friend of five years. And just inside the dorm, looking bashful but eager, the famous Rachel Amber.

“Hey loser!! It's a good thing you finally started getting back in touch with me. I can't tell you how pissed I'd be if I didn't have the prep time needed to welcome you properly.” Max was finally freed from the chokehold and she already knew that this was just the first of many awkward introductions during her time here at Blackwell. “More importantly, dun dun duuunnnnnnn, here she is ladies and gentlemen... shit, just ladies...” Chloe was excitable and scattered and Max was barely able to wrap her mind around the short blue hair. It was like talking to a living, breathing whirlwind.

“The one... The only... Raaacchhheeeellllllll.... Ammmbbeeerrrrrr~!!!” Chloe made some impressive fake crowd noises and the beautiful blonde completely ignored her excitement, extending a perfect hand and a perfect smile.

“I'm really sorry about her. Shortly after that first letter you sent her, it's pretty much just been Max, Max, Max, 24/7. It's enough to make a girl jealous.” Despite the words that could have been threatening from anyone else, the way she laughed so brightly, so infectiously, Max got the honest impression that Rachel really was interested in meeting her.

Chloe was still dancing around, doing her best to imitate an entire cheering stadium. It felt like it was just yesterday she was leaving for Seattle. “Well, luckily for you, I'm just as much of a dork as the day I left. The only person I'm in danger of stealing is that Warren guy...”

“Oh my gosh, _Warren_ imprinted on you?? You poor dear...” If Max understood correctly, Chloe's girlfriend was basically friends with everyone, and she could kind of see why. It wasn't just a physical thing, exactly, though that didn't hurt. She was charming, charismatic, empathetic. You felt like you knew her after just a few seconds.

“Mmm, my fault for wearing a Doctor Who shirt my first day.”

“Nonsense. He's a good dude, just... eager. Not unlike a certain someone I know. Speaking of which...” Rachel reached out and snagged Chloe's arm, bringing her little play session to an immediate end. “Darling. Be a dear and maybe actually help your friend? I have no doubt she's got more shit to bring in.”

“Oh! Yeah, my parents are at some kind of meeting thing and then they'll be over with the rest. Until then, it's just this stuff.” Max carried a bag in each hand and her beloved guitar was slung around her shoulder in a padded carrier. The two duffels were taken from her in a flash and placed on her bed. “And for the love of god, don't actually go through my stuff...” Though Max had initially said it as a joke, she could see Chloe reaching for the zipper before rapidly yanking her hand away.

“Wouldn't dream of snooping. Obviously.” She finally seemed to be coming down from her excitement and came back to give Max another tight hug, this time less excitable and more slow, meaningful. The kind of hug you gave someone you hadn't seen after five years. And it felt good. “I'm really really **really** glad you're back, Max. And I can't tell you how happy I am you're getting along.” Chloe pulled back and the other two could see a few tears in the corner of her eyes. Rachel cooed and moved to her side to wipe them away with her thumb and Max immediately saw just how much slack the blonde had been picking up in her absence. Rachel had been pulling double duty as girlfriend and best friend. Max felt bad about that. “Shit, um, can we get outta here? Just gotta take care of something real quick...”

Rachel gave a serious nod, and Max was starting to become seriously concerned. _Is this some kind of weird cult thing? Is that why Rachel seemed so popular and perfect? Oh god..._

Okay, so Max knew she was letting her paranoia get the best of her, but she honestly had no clue what to expect. Her confidence didn't really get any better as the three of them climbed into a rusty, rickety excuse for a truck and the bluenette began driving them away from the school. They chatted amiably enough, about how excited they all were for the semester, and the fact that they would get to graduate together – here Rachel Amber cut in to remind Chloe for the apparently millionth time that she'd be a drop-out if not for her intervention. They were apparently making big plans to go off, maybe to California, and the way Chloe talked, she wanted to drag Max along. Well, some things never changed.

They arrived at the town dump and Max's hopes were shrinking by the second. Maybe Chloe had actually been plotting with her lover how to kill Max for abandoning her? _Jesus, Caulfield, get your shit together. Chloe's gone punk, not psycho!_

It turned out to be something of a clubhouse, though that was kind of a generous description. There were old car seats and overturned spools for tables. It was so very... Arcadia Bay. “Our home away from home away from home. And now it's yours too, Maximus. Here.” Chloe passed Max a permanent marker, though the way she did it, the more apropos word would probably be “bequeath”. She was directed toward a spot on the wall where both Chloe and Rachel had added their names with the beautifully clichéd 'was here'.

She knelt in the dirt, uncapped the marker, and wrote it out with as much flair as she could, trying not so much to mimic the others' styles as the attitude that this was her mark and it had to be special. She finished and turned to hand the marker back, only to be shocked by the sound of light applause. Her face bloomed in a bright blush and she moved over to collapse on one of the makeshift chairs, pleased to find it was actually rather comfy.

“So Max” Rachel launched in eagerly. “Chloe tells me you're a photographer?”

“Yeah. I mean, I try. I dunno. I want to be?” Her hesitant answer earned her a bright laugh from the other two and she attempted to burrow into her seat a little more.

“Good answer. Not everyone at Blackwell is so humble.”

“Oh, fuck, like... what's her name?? Baby, who's the one with the hair shorter than mine? She was sobbing about some news story?”

“Victoria... The one person at school smart enough to resist my charms...”

Max cocked her head to the side, feeling like she just missed at least three different pieces of information in one fell swoop. “Okay, you're gonna have to back up...”

“Victoria Chase. She'll... probably be gunning for you. She's like... Queen Bee of this big social club, and has all these fancy cameras and always goes on about like... Shit, I don't really know any names. Whatever. Blackwell was supposed to get some hotshot dude in to teach photography cla-”

“Mark Jefferson.” Max felt her stomach sink. She could empathize with that Victoria girl at the moment. Jefferson was the reason she was so excited about Blackwell, and then the cops found... well... it was too terrible to think about. “Yeah, I remember. I have his book. Well, had. I burned it after I found out. He was a genius, but can you imagine the hell he'd cause in a small town like this?”

“Why is it always the hot ones??” Rachel Amber cried, rather dramatically, in the general direction of the heavens.

“Tread carefully, babe. You're either calling me a hot psycho or an ugly regular person...”

Max giggled and watched as the blonde attempted to stop from digging herself in any deeper. This was... nice. Back together with her partner in crime and her girlfriend, a rivalry with some girl named Victoria, and her first ever opportunity to actually break some poor nerd's heart. It was bound to be a good year.


	2. Rachel is Still Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just couldn't help myself. Many thanks to the amazing inktrap for the [inspiration](http://inktrap.tumblr.com/post/130169978929/drawing-the-squad-like-that) that caused this garbage dump.

Max contemplated her first day back in Arcadia Bay, the secret clubhouse she'd been shown, the honor of getting to place her name right there alongside Chloe and Rachel's names. It was starting to feel kind of prophetic now. They had their own little thing, and they'd let her in on it, but there were two major problems. First was the obvious issue, that she felt like a major third wheel. More often than not she was living out her life through her camera, and her friends featured pretty prominently. She had more than a few snapshots of Rachel and Chloe being adorable. If they wanted to be all girlfriend-y and go on a date or get intimate, then Max was out on her ass and had to go bug someone else, usually Kate, occasionally Warren if she was desperate.

But, the trouble was that sometimes she wished to be  **more** than a third wheel, rather than less. Chloe had been her friend for years, and she always felt particularly close to her. And Rachel Amber, it turned out, was every ounce the fantastic human being that the bluenette had made her out to be. Sweet and kind and funny and beautiful and thoughtful and...

Oh hell, Max knew it, she was crushing hard on the both of them. And that made her feel like such a weirdo dorky freak. Like the two were secretly looking for ways to get rid of her pretty much non-stop. Even if she knew that wasn't true, she couldn't stop the paranoia from overwhelming her at times. And she had no doubt that each time they would hang out together, her behavior was getting more aggravating.

That was what she thought anyway, that was how she felt about it all. But now here she was, seated between the two instead of off to one side. Chloe insisted because they were watching Blade Runner and she desperately wanted to cuddle up to Max. And then Rachel said something snarky, wanting to know “what all the fuss was about.” So now Max had two beautiful women who both seemed equally invested in both the movie and herself. And she knew she was freaking out, but it was hard to decide exactly which kind of freaked out she was.

Chloe was the first to notice – no surprise there. It didn't help that Max was mostly just staring at the floor instead of the screen. “Hey, Max, are you okay?” It hadn't really occurred to her yet that Chloe's arm was around her, but she became increasingly aware as the grip on her shoulder tightened and her friend leaned in slightly. “You're looking a little out of it...”

Now Rachel was turning to face her as well, and a gentle hand was resting against her cheek as the blonde inspected her, as if searching her eyes would help decode whatever the problem was.

“No, you guys, I'm fine. Just... Just keep watching the movie...” Quite the opposite, Chloe turned the television off so that both of them could turn their full attention on Max. “Please, guys, it's nothing.”

Chloe was unimpressed and she looked Max dead in the eyes. “It's not. You've been all... fumbly around us for weeks now.”

Max curled in on herself but there wasn't exactly much she could do to hide beyond straight-up leaving, and she wasn't that bold. “I don't want you guys to hate me. And there's absolutely no way you won't be able to hate me if I tell you.”

Now it was Rachel's turn to push things a little bit. One hand landed to rest atop Max's knee with such gentle care that she almost didn't notice it. Same for the other which came up to toy with her hair lightly. “You realize the more you tell us to back down, the more we want to know. Besides, you're our friend, Max. We care about you...” The hand at her knee massaged slowly and her eyes closed almost automatically, her head going a little fuzzy.

Could she really do it? Was it possible that she could say something so scary and weird and not freak them out? They were both so chill, Max found just the tiniest spark of hope to latch onto. “You're both... so amazing... And sometimes I start to wonder... I-I like to think what it would be like... if I wasn't just your friend... And I know that's crazy talk, but the seed is already planted, so then I just get weird and guilty.” Oh god, it was all getting away from her and she couldn't stop herself. Perhaps she should have just left after all. “I would just hate to come between you guys, but I don't know if I can keep being a boring third wheel either. I'm going a little batty...” The hand that had been latched around her shoulders suddenly delivered a light slap to the back of her head, and Max winced. “Chloe?? What the fuck!”

“You're an idiot, Max Caulfield. Very sweet, but very stupid.” Almost immediately Chloe was all sugar again, rubbing her back, leaning in closer, joining her hand with Rachel's so that now both of them were touching her leg. “If you wanted to...  _come between us_ ... all you had to do was ask.”

Max was less freaked out now, but far more confused. All the tact that Chloe was missing could generally be found in her girlfriend. “What Chloe is utterly failing to say like a normal human being...” she glared for a moment before continuing in a more normal tone, “is that there are plenty of relationships out there that include more than two people. And if you feel that it's something you might like to try with us, well... I think that's something we could absolutely arrange...” Her voice was so soft, it was like honey, and Max felt herself being drawn in slowly, only to suddenly be whipped around and pulled into a kiss with Chloe instead.

When it finally ended, leaving Max breathless and still quite confused, Chloe shot a look at Rachel, a look that Max might have called 'possessive'. “ **My** best friend first, I get first kiss...” Max was hardly able to process that statement before Rachel finally got her own embrace. Though she was too distracted to see the way Rachel looked in Chloe's direction with a little wink, she could feel just how long this kiss was going on. And then she noticed something else, hands tugging away her hoodie as she continued to kiss Rachel Amber. More hands, brushing up under the bottom of her shirt, teasing her sides, eliciting a soft moan.

Finally, she was released – from the kiss at any rate, the hands continued to roam gently over her body from both sides. It was beginning to dawn on Max, roughly ten minutes too late, just how coordinated and planned all this felt. It had seemed impossible that the other two felt for her what she felt for them. But now she saw it and felt it and heard it and her mind felt a little bit fuzzy and her eyes watered slightly. Even now, she couldn't fully comprehend it. “You guuyyss...”

A simultaneous pair of “awww”s hit her ears and the hands moved away from the more sensual touches to tend to wiping away her tears and caressing her hair, kisses peppering her cheeks. “God, Chloe, how in the hell did you not fall in love with this precious darling the first time you met her??”

“I did, and if she'd done a better job keeping in touch then we wouldn't have had this entire ridiculous moment and we could have gotten to the good stuff right away!”

Max remained a few seconds behind, and she processed Chloe's reply slowly. “You what?? All this time??”

“Come on...” Chloe said, taking a hand each and dragging them towards the stairs and, inevitably, her bed. “As we get nice and comfy, I will tell you the story of the dirt-eating child who fell in love with that weird girl that always carried around her Hello Kitty Polaroid...”


End file.
